ChondroCensus 2022:
​Building and Streamlining Collaborative Capacity

Jennie Janssen,
National Aquarium

Full Abstract

The AZA SAFE Sharks and Rays International Census of Chondrichthyans in Human Care (aka the ChondroCensus), which launched in 2019 at www.sharksandraysproject.com as a reboot of the American Elasmobranch Society’s International Elasmobranch Census, has grown to contain 274 unique species from 235 facilities across 54 countries world-wide as of November 2021. To make this collection of data a truly useful tool for engaging in meaningful, strategic, and collaborative chondrichthyan conservation, stakeholder Teams can complete a survey providing basic husbandry info and add their organizational accrediting body. These data can then be searched by region, organizational accrediting body, genus or species, sex, and the surveyed husbandry criteria. In addition to streamlining periodic reporting required by organizational accrediting bodies, these new features will also anonymously connect stakeholders with each other and with the research community to advance husbandry practices and facilitate collaborative chondrichthyan conservation efforts. Teams always remain anonymous and thus maintain control over their data, as search results are only shown as the number of Teams per ChondroCensus Region. Thus, each stakeholder facility’s Team Coordinator holds the critical role of whether their Team chooses to respond to any requests for connection or information, thereby identifying themselves as stakeholders of the species a search query pertains to.​